Ice on the peninsula experiences some melting every summer, unlike most of the continent. But in recent decades the amount of ice that has melted has increased at an alarming rate.

The melting is attributed to rising temperatures across the Antarctic Peninsula that have risen 2.8°C over the past 50 years, making it the most rapidly warming region in the Southern Hemisphere.

The continent’s frozen exterior belies the fact that it is officially considered a desert, due to its low annual rainfall (less than 10 inches). This means far more ice is melting than is being replenished each year.

The findings, which were published in the current issue of Nature GeoScience, are based on a study of an ice core that was taken in 2008 from the peninsula’s northern tip. The core, extracted by drilling deep into the ice sheet, offered the scientists a historic record of environmental conditions.